Last summer after many years of hard service, my old FoodSaver Professional 2 unexpectedly quit. Those who have/had one know that it has the capability to do most anything you would expect of a home vacuum machine. I wasn't surprised to learn that FoodSaver no longer made that model, but was really dismayed that it made NO model that had all the functions of the Pro 2. I also read so many complaints about newer FS machines using a large amount of material to seal a bag. I was not willing to down-grade to a machine that was not capable of doing everything I wanted it too. After a lot of research, I decided to give the Ary VacMaster Pro 260 a try. It has the capability to do all I wanted it to do and will do many vac & seals quickly without needing a break to cool-down. At first nothing went well and the newly purchased machine had to be sent back to the company. Since I have received the replacement, I have been very happy with it. It is more powerful than the old FS Pro2 and draws a better vacuum, has a wider heat sealer bar, has the built-in cutter tool for making a bag and a storage section for 2 sizes of roll materialâ¦. AND 2 more big deal added bonuses for me: 1) FoodSaver accessories, bags and attachments etc. work fine with the VacMaster!! 2) The attachments that run off the air hose are controlled with a separate accessory button on this VacMaster. Therefore, the tool I use most with the hose can stay attached even when I am using the machine to seal bags. One little thing I didn't like is a BRIGHT âÂÂpower onâ light when plugged in (I keep mine plugged in all the time since it is used often), but it was an easy fix to dim it. I hope the VM Pro260 has as good a life span as did my FS Pro2 had and will give FoodSaver good competition. That could get both companies to design better products. I get peeved when a company produces a very useful product then âÂÂimprovesâ it by making it less capable :o By the way, the FS zipper bags that are made for dry goods and fridge storage, work fine in the freezer if you first remember to put a small piece of packaging tape on two sides of the plastic piece that allows for the vacuuming. Otherwise the tag falls off after being in the freezer for a while. Crystal

Because of the way rolls are wound the quilted side tends to curl down. Placing the embossed quilted side up in the sealer, may cause the end to curl up, which could catch on something. I usually date mark (felt tip) the smooth side and and have the embossed side face down. The impulse sealer I have is the exact same as the one sold on the eBay site. They have 6", 8", 12", and 15" ones, but I use the 12" model. Its even useful when you wish to reseal some other things that are packaged in plastic bags or heat sealable materials. The knob adjusts the heating time. It can be set to pulse for less than a second, all the way up to about 6-7 seconds. By that length of time, the material being sealed would really burn and melt. I also use it to fuse together the white garden fabrics I use to protect some plants from bugs and frosts. The white fabrics are spun, and can get fused together very easily. I was able to fuse a 25 foot sheet of the light weight fabric to another sheet 25 feet in size. I had to do it in 12" increments, but it held up well. The FS models have a built in over heat cut off, if the sealing is done repeatedly and the heater gets very hot after several seals. A lot of the things I use for kitchen have been bought over many years. Some of the things I have here belonged to my parents, as my mom and dad canned a lot when they were younger. My dad started the garden out back many years ago and loved blueberries, so I have a lot of blueberry bushes out there still growing over 35 years. I expanded on the garden, and added a big asparagus patch, horse radish, 5 apple trees, 3 different Asian pear trees, raspberries, peach/plum/apricot grafted tree, Pluot 4 fruit grafted, garlic chives, wild onions, and even a sour cherry and quince tree. There are sausage making supply companies that also sell generic bag rolls cheaper than FS. Sign up for the FS emails as they just had a 30% discount on a recent vertical model and rolls. I would have posted the link, but most of the time the special prices only show up if you go to the special web page from the email link they send you.

There are two sizes of the FS canning jar attachments. One is meant for regular mouth canning jars, and the other is for the larger mouth canning jars. Yes, they use the exact same lids used in home canning. The lids are placed on top of the jar, and the attachment is pushed down over it to make a seal between a rubber ring and the glass bead just below the threads of the jars. Once air is pulled out, and you pull off the vacuum hose from the attachment, a tiny 'slug' of air, blasts into the small vacuum hole and the lid is forced down onto the jar and seals it. You remove the attachement then and rinse off the jar if its wet. The seal is very strong and is usually far better than a regular canning process would do. As mentoned, The FS vacuum pump is NOT powerful enough to be safely used as an alternative to regular canning processing. Besides that, if the very small vacuum pump inside the FS gets any trace of moisture in it, it can cause damage to the FS machine. I use a much higher powered piston type vacuum pump and also have a water/moisture trap on the vacuum line. The pump I have quickly goes down to 30 inches, which is sufficient for a decent vacuum. I also vacuum seal dried herbs like dill weed. It remains very fragrent and bright green color, even after 2 years of storage.

John, Great pix! You are not making it easy for me to wait till Christmas! I just bought a 3/4-bushel hamper of sweet peppers to freeze (have only enough of my own for fresh eating) but these will have to go in ziplocs. ajsmama, I decided the same thing. I'm thinking about this model, which is a lower-end one that doesn't have the fancier features like automatic cutting of bags or an integrated place to store the bags, but doesn't take up too much space or cost too much. http://www.foodsaver.com/Product.aspx?id=c&cid=87&pid=250 Z P.S. My dad used to use a straw to suck air out of Ziplocs full of stuff to be frozen. He'd zip up almost all of the seal and then slip the straw in, suck out the air, then pinch the straw and slip it out and zip up the spot where it had been real quick. I do it sometimes, mostly because it makes me smile to remember him doing that; I can't say for sure whether it helps. The bag does flatten around the edges and cling tightly around the stuff. But I find Ziploc seals don't tend to be airtight for long.